Saturday, March 29, 2014

Contours

Of Tyranny

Henry VIII

Henry
VIII has been one of the most studied of English monarchs; a man who was indeed
larger than life. In popular lore he is one of the best known of English
rulers. Certainly he has been filmed multiple times. From the film The Private Life of Henry VIII, to Anne of a Thousand Days, to A Man for All Seasons and The Other Boleyn Girl there is an army
of film portrayals of Henry VIII.1

Sunday, March 23, 2014

“Freedom”
Under a Tyranny

Isaiah Berlin

One of the most
important attributes of tyranny and living under a tyranny is that intelligent
people are forced to “trim their sails” in order to survive. Thus they are
forced to compromise their intellect in order to stay both safe and alive. Thecorollary
that goes with that is that the holders
of power can dictate what is “reasonable” and “rational” and their holding of
power over people enables them to enforce their views against the will and
intellect of others.

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Waiting for Godot

The von Daniken Version

of the Mayan Collapse

Erich von Daniken

In a previous posting I
briefly reviewed Erich von Daniken’s monumental best seller Chariots of the Gods? Of course I
concluded that the book was incredibly silly, basically stunningly wrong, but
great fun as a puff piece of absurdest “explanation”. Since then we have seen
the creation and broadcasting of the idiotic Ancient Aliens, a show that uses the Ancient Space Aliens nonsense
and puts the critical facilities to sleep. Von Daniken along with other
“experts” has appeared often on the show promoting his idiocies. However the
bottom line was that von Daniken simply didn’t and doesn't know what he was talking about.1

Monday, March 10, 2014

Sources

and “Truth”

France in 1429 C.E.

In a previous posting I
took apart the book Conquestby
Juliet Barker,1 about the conquest and loss of Normandy during the Hundred
Years War. In the posting I criticized Juliet Barker’s book for being
“Patriotically Correct”, and frankly biased and anti-French.